It is a strange morning when the country is in constitutional crisis; across the world there are people mourning deaths caused by those who have shot innocent people; climate change continues; economic justice carries on unabated and I feel that there is nothing much to write about. But looking at the news that is my reaction. And I have to ask myself why that is?
Have I become inured to these traumas? Is it now commonplace to suffer the stress that they create without really noticing? Why can I not feel that there is, despite the revulsion at what has happened in Christchurch, nothing for me to add? And have I simply become resigned to Brexit chaos, knowing that it will continue for years to come, whatever I say? And might we not win the war to save the planet? Is that possible, however well-intentioned some are? Will injustice always be with us, come to that?
I recognise all the risks: these things are possible. I recognise that I am distracted by work pressure as well, of which there is a lot right now.
What I also realise, simply by choosing to write this reflection, which like so many of my blog posts is an exercise in me seeking an answer to my own questions, is that it is vital that we accept that such risks exist.
I cannot be alone in frequently not wanting to watch the news these days.
I dislike the melodrama. I dislike the focus on negativity. I dislike that supposed balance seems to give credibility to those who do not deserve it. I dislike the fact that ethics appear to have disappeared. And that the question ‘why?' rather than “what?, ‘when?' and ‘how?' seems to have fallen off the agenda unless it can be addressed in 15 seconds, which is always nigh on impossible.
But I realise that I have company in thinking better must be possible. And that it is something to aspire to, especially when so much of what we hear is so adversarially negative. By which I do not condemn those being adversarial, per se: I am condemning the negativity that seeks to oppose for the sake of it, which so much of populism does, as if finding a route to success requires elimination of alternative opinion when common ground is the usual bedrock of achievement.
I want to believe we can find common solutions when all I can see are far too many politicians and opinion-formers too readily looking to blame, when the situations they dislike are things for which they should be taking part of the responsibility in a great many cases.
In essence, on a morning where the world seems laden with problems I wish for a solution focussed way of thinking. The imagination to ask ‘what would a world that was different, and which was better, look like?' And to hope that people will then try to achieve it.
That may not be newsworthy, and yet it is what we so often require. Mot especially when things are not working, as seems depressingly commonplace at the moment.
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I think part of the problem is actually ‘The News’. The reality is that far less people are killed / injured in war, terror attacks, crime, etc than was the case in say the 1970s (think Bader Meinhoff, Red Brigades, Pol Pot, Vietnam, etc) or a hundred years ago (think Russian Revolution / civil war, Munich putsch, endless imperial wars, etc). It just does not seem like it because we now get incidents from all over the World reported in our media that in the past we would probably simply never have heard about. Visual reporting also is heavily skewed by whatever they happen to have graphic film of. I think it is very informative to contrast e.g. the Radio 4 News at 10pm with the TV version. They are very different – a serious discussion and factual reporting on one vs graphic often gruesome trivia on the other.
Also worth noting that in all developed countries, and for the World as a whole, the biggest cause of death for everyone under 50 is car accidents. My own brother, for example, died in Namibia after falling asleep at the wheel, while another friend in South Africa died when a speeding lorry overturned on a bend and landed on his car. Nobody bothers about car crashes, though, other than those directly affected. As usual we have a totally skewed view of risk – obsessive about aircraft but happy to jaywalk across the road, for example. Now, where were all those ‘Rational Expectations’ some economists love again?
Tim Rideout says:
“I think part of the problem is actually ‘The News’.”
Yep. Can’t argue with that. Much of it is little more than the peddling of ‘sensation’. Gossip, even.
On violence, Stephen Pinker is adamant that our world is less violent than at any time in our history, though perhaps he discounts the violent road kill you refer to (?) The Twin Towers death-toll at the time was said to be the equivalent, numerically, of three months US road kill.
My own solution to the issue of ‘The News’ is to turn off the streaming of it AT me. I go looking for it rather than have it fed to me as a constant barrage. If it is of consequence it matters little when the news reaches me; a day late a week late.. so what?
Perhaps this article “Citizen deliberation is the gateway to a better politics” in the Economist’s current series “How to fix democracy” is relevant:
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/03/11/citizen-deliberation-is-the-gateway-to-a-better-politics
“A deliberative process helped to frame and structure last year’s Irish constitutional referendum leading to abortion-law reform. What could have been a highly divisive process was one which not only reached a clear conclusion but, remarkably, seemed to bring the country together.”
Nick H says:
“Perhaps this article “Citizen deliberation is the gateway to a better politics” ….”
Logically it has to be. Whether the deliberation is formally organised or not, democracy without deliberation by the voters is a nonsense.
If the Brexit referendum result shows nothing else, it shows that. Even at this very late stage we don’t know what is going to be delivered under the heading ‘Brexit’. Nor even, with certainty, that it will be delivered at all.
We Brits have a lot to learn from the Irish, and the way the Republic has developed and grown – in moral stature – since it came into being nearly a century ago. The abortion Referendum is only one example that proves the case.
Another is the fact that the current Taoiseach is an openly gay man of mixed race, who took his partner with him to the USA, deliciously resulting in openly homophobic Vice-President Pence having to pose for an official photograph, with the Taoiseach at one end, and his partner at the other, with Pence next to the partner, and Pence’s equally homophobic (I believe) wife next to Varadkar.
Talk about a quiet, subtle putdown: no ranting, just “being”, and difficult to imagine happening here, without the “usual suspects” in the MSM foaming at the mouth. Compare Mrs May’s cringeworthy walk in the Rose Garden, holding hands with Trump, which was nauseatingly lauded by those same rags!
Spot on
You are a particularly good example of someone who has striven for years to make incremental changes. With a consistency and determination that, much as I admire it, I can’t match.
One of the things I find most depressing in our current world is the ‘populist’ belief that there is a simple remedy. When someone tells me what we need is a strong leader my heart sinks. Because it has never been an effective solution before. Sure we can look back with our rose-tinted spectacles at a golden past and ignore the mass suffering and oppression that allowed the ‘Glories that were Rome’ and all the other very selective nostalgic illusions of grandeur.
Re the Christchurch outrage, there seems to be a positive reaction coming from Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. Her response has been widely praised, and contrasts with the sort of tin-ear, complacent detachment demonstrated by Theresa May after Grenfell and on other issues of public concern.
I’ve got no particular brief for religions, I think they are all deeply dubious, but I do think that worshippers, whether I think they are barmy or not, should be able to get on with their lives without needing to dress for church in a flak jacket and go armed to the teeth. Apparently a significant number of individual Kiwis have been moved to hand-in their own weapons as an indication of their revulsion towards the actions of a few ‘nutters’.
The reaction from a vociferous element in US society is the contrary and unhelpful ‘solution’ that everybody should be armed against the occasional lunatic. I’m convinced the New Zealand response is the one more likely to show long term positive returns.
I cling to that as a beacon of hope from a very unpleasant incident. I have actually seen some of the footage from the assailant’s body cam. It looks uncannily like a video game scenario…… I’m not sure what that says. I’m mulling it over.
Mulling is good
Mulling is indeed good, especially when it involves wine!
🙂
I gave up having a TV many years ago largely because of it’s negativity, lack of balance, propaganda and so on. One of the first things you realise is how your mind has become saturated by other people’s supposed expert opinions, secondly, how the media first frames the narrative and then issues forth proclamations to back up their position. From what I see, too many people today constantly search out only the arguments/articles that support their world view, I think debate is a casualty of modern reporting and modern discussion programs. Along with subject saturation, news is instant, constant and often fails to be newsworthy. What’s worse is even when it is newsworthy it is not simply left as a report, it is turned inside out and shaped to educate the viewer into the correct way to think about it.
I recommend everyone should give it up, and find reliable reporting, not always easy but it is out there to be found. A daily dose of countless forms of injustice, constantly repeated, is unhelpful and unhealthy.
@Geoff
“I gave up having a TV many years ago……” Ditto. …..and for broadly similar reasons.
“I recommend everyone should give it up, and find reliable reporting,….”
So do I, but as you say not it’s easy. In fact I’d say impossible….no reporting comes free of the baggage of the reporter so it is never ‘safe’ to accept its reliability without question. Multiple sources offering different perspectives makes that very clear, very quickly.
We have a justice system which takes this into account and accepts that witness statements vary, and that people may also be lying. If we expect a better standard of witness testimony from the media we must be truly simple-minded. Media reporters and commentators don’t even go through the motions of swearing an oath…….
My watching has declined considerably in recent years
Partly because there are always so many better things to do
And I am all the better for it
We still have one television – but no one watches it much, although that is typical of young people now
What would such a world look like? Phew!
Well, there would be a debt jubilee and no austerity for a start? Or, instead of letting debt build up we would simply print the money we needed, so avoiding a jubilee and austerity and not feeding the need for the rich to enrich themselves further using their money.
The commons would be well maintained and funded and still ‘common’. Infrastructure would be well-maintained.
Or we might print more base money invested straight into things we needed such as cleaner transport networks and green technology/energy. Our cities would have less cars, and less pollution, congestion and more electric driven vehicles or people powered ones.
Homelessness would disappear because we’d build enough affordable houses for folk plus special accommodation to keep those with issues that help them to end up on the street.
Rents would be fairer because we’d insist telling banks that houses are homes first not – not assets to raise extra buying power – that link should be cut. As a result, those who rent might also be able to build up their wealth too.
We would have incentives for recycling with people going to the shops with their containers and buying stuff by weight.
There would be a form of UBI or job guarantee and begging would be eradicated. Housework and child care, caring for the unwell would be rewarded through this system and deservedly so.
We would see more localism in the form of services being based in the community whether in rural towns and cities, the gain being in less pollution and better management of time and more opportunity to earn and spend money locally.
We’d have stronger regional Government, with a remit to protect and uphold economic life along the lines above at a local level, ensuring that the fruits of the kingdom were widely and fairly distributed from the Centre of which the relationship would be more equal.
There would be more reliance on our natural assets for power (tidal and wind/water systems).
10 Years of austerity and rolling back of the state would be made good.
There would be increased co-operation across the world with all countries in win/win relationships, sharing the earth’s resources, sharing our cultures and increasing the depth of our understanding of each other making conflict the exception.
A four day working week as standard?
There are other things no doubt but there is one other thing: What would a world like this FEEL like?
Happier?
More relaxed?
Less stressed?
Healthier?
Fairer?
In-tune with others around us?
More inclined to care for others and ask of them ‘ What does she or he need?’ rather than ‘Why has she/he got this and I haven’t’? or ‘She/he does not deserve that because….’.
Hear, hear